Almost Everything
by Vren
Summary: Will Turner has almost everything he needs. Is it enough for him? Jack and Will slash.


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Almost Everything

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Jack/Will, rated PG-13.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean nor any of the characters or locations portrayed here. I don´t make any money with them, nor do I intend to. I simply do this for others´ enjoyment and mine.

* * *

"Good morning, Elizabeth," Will says wearily to the woman lying next to him in bed.

"Good morning, Will," she replies with a smile and kisses Will on the cheek. She gets up and dresses up. "Are you coming to breakfast?" she asks after a while.

"In a minute," he says absently.

Elizabeth grins. "Don´t take too long, savvy?" She frowns when Will doesn´t grin with her, and, taken aback, leaves for breakfast.

Will feels empty. He has, for a few weeks already. He doesn´t exactly know what it is, but he has a vague idea, because for some reason he feels more at ease when he´s looking onto the horizon. Or rather he feels worse, because he feels as though something is swelling inside his throat and it fills his mouth and thoughts and eyes and stomach and yet he can´t identify the feeling. But at least it´s not emptiness, that he can say.

He has been married to Elizabeth for a year now. They had a nice, pretty wedding with many guests. Norrington was there. Elizabeth´s father was there. Several of Will´s and Elizabeth´s friends were. In fact, they all were there.

But Jack Sparrow wasn´t.

Will can´t explain why he feels so helpless because of that.

He gets up and dresses up, like he always does. Before he descends the stairs, he gazes out of the window that has a good view over the town. No black sails in the harbour. He goes to breakfast and listens to Elizabeth ranting about things. He nods and smiles and talks a little. Elizabeth doesn´t say 'savvy' anymore, but for some reason it just keeps turning around in Will´s head, and after a while he can almost hear Jack saying it aloud. The thought makes him smile, but when Elizabeth asks what he´s smiling at, he just says, "nothing in particular, Liz." Apparently she takes that as a good thing and grins.

Eventually, their breakfast together ends and they both leave for their respective jobs. Elizabeth kisses Will lightly and heads to town. So does Will.

On his way, he passes the harbour. His step falters, and no matter how hard he tries to keep walking, he stops. He glances around, and checks again just to be sure. No black sails. He feels a little crestfallen, though he has long since stopped waiting to see them.

"Ay! Will! Will Turner!" he suddenly hears, and turns around to see who it is.

"Ah, Gibbs! Long time no see, eh?" says Will as he recognizes the approaching figure.

"Yes, a long time! …What fancy clothes ye have here! Seems your bonnie lass has had a good effect on ye," Gibbs says, inspecting Will with his blue eyes.

"One could say that," Will says and smiles. "How´s everything been?"

"Good, good, the Black Pearl is still sailing proudly, as far as I know…"

Will frowns. "Why are you here, then? Why are you not on the ship?"

Gibbs cringes. Will assumes that the thought is not pleasant. "Got this nasty sickness, ye know? No cure. Will kill me, before long." His tone is casual. "Cap´n thought best that I be left on land. Guess that was a good decision. Travelled here from Tortuga." Will is rather sure that he hears some bitterness in the older man´s voice.

He hesitates for a while before he asks the next question, though he doesn´t know why. "How… how is everyone?"

"Fine when I left them, the lot. Anamaria keeps getting really mad at Jack, though."

"Why?" asks Will, and he can´t hide his curiosity.

Gibbs gives him a glance. "They had this fling, a while ago… No one knows what happened, ye know, but she´s been really unhappy about him ever since… He´s been doing something stupid, I think."

Will ponders this. "Oh."

"I don´t know what it is, and I don´t even want to know, to be brutally honest. Doesn´t interest me a bit."

"Do you know where the Pearl is now?" Will asks sharply.

"They said that they were sailing for Port-Au-Prince next. Why?"

"Er, nothing, nothing. It was really nice talking to you, but I really have to go now. See you later!" Will says with a wave of his hand and starts walking away.

"See ye…" Will hears Gibbs say and wonders if they´ll ever meet again.

* * *

The next day starts just like the one before. No black sails. Not on the next day either.

* * *

On the third day, Will doesn´t walk past the harbour as usual, but he walks along the docks to the ships. He looks for a large cargo ship and walks onboard. The day before he had searched information about all of the ships on the harbour and had, in fact, found two heading for Port-Au-Prince. He picked the smaller.

He asks around for the captain, and is introduced to a tall, pale man with a stony face and icy eyes. "Captain Richard Merrywell, sir," the sailor says and scuttles off. For some reason, Will finds himself thinking that a man like this isn´t like a captain should be.

"Sir," the captain says and nods. "What can I do for you?" He has an English accent.

"According to my sources, you´re heading for Port-Au-Prince."

"That´s right."

"Can you fit one passenger in? I´ll pay well." Will takes out a bag of money and shakes it slightly so that the gold inside rattles. The captain´s eyes light up and Will decides that money really is power.

"Well – all right. Thirty-five shillings, please…" the captain proffers his hand and Will drops some coins on it. The man pockets them swiftly.

"When will we leave?" Will asks. He has already packed everything he needs, he´s ready to go any minute.

"In a half an hour. Be here then," the man says and walks away.

Forty-seven minutes later, the ship leaves, seventeen minutes late. Will is annoyed by the delay, but he really can´t do anything about it so he decides to relax. Only if it was that easy.

He told Elizabeth that he was going on a business trip. He doesn´t know why he didn´t tell her that he was going to look for J – the Black Pearl, maybe because that would´ve lead to the awkward question _why_. It irritates Will because he can´t answer that, even to himself. And maybe he didn´t tell her because she would´ve wanted to come with him, and he doesn´t know why the thought bothers him so much.

The ship is the HMS Infiltrator. It is a small and rather pretty ship, though Will doubts that Jack would´ve liked it. It isn´t very fast, but the captain has assured him many times that they´ll reach Port-Au-Prince in at least three days. Will wonders if that´ll be fast enough. He doesn´t believe that he´ll be able to catch the Black Pearl there, but at least he´ll probably have some more clues to where it has sailed.

On the ship, he has a nice cabin. It isn´t neither big nor fancy, but it´s clean and has almost everything he needs.

After five days they reach Port-Au-Prince. Will is a little indignated by the delay and wonders if anything is on time anymore. But he´s happy about the fact that they are there, finally.

He leaves the HMS Infiltrator without another glance and heads to the inns nearby to find a room. He gets one in the top floor of a fairly clean and cosy place. The room is nice. It has almost everything he needs.

He takes a stroll around the town, to find information and possibly a pub where pirates would feel comfortable in. The town is rather big. It is almost big enough to be called a city. The streets are like snakes as they slither around the tall buildings.

Will wanders into the more shady area of Port-Au-Prince, where the streets are not so wide and all the curtains are closed in the windows. There are several brothels around. Finally, Will finds a gloomy pub of the name "The Happy Sailor." When Will enters it, he decides that the name is very appropriate, for all the sailors there look very happy.

He settles in a murky corner that is mostly empty. He sits there, waiting and listening to the clues about the Pearl´s crew that can´t be heard because they would be whispered if there was any, but he doesn´t give up. He only leaves when the pub empties, after hours, and goes to bed.

He goes to the pub the next day, and the one after that, and the one after that. He never orders anything. Finally, after four nights of just sitting around idly, he sees someone that strikes a chord within him. It´s a woman, not young but not old, dark skin, long black hair that is very messy. She is drinking a lot. Will tries to remember her name. She is the one Jack had once stolen a ship from – ahem, no, borrowed it – what was her name… Ann… Anna… Annemary… Anamary… Anamaria. Yes, that was it. Will moves swiftly to her table and greets her. She squints at him through puffy eyes.

"And who´d you be, mate?" she asks, in a slightly hostile manner.

"Turner, Will Turner," Will says, hoping that she´ll remember him. He´s glad when he sees her eyes light up with recognition and curiosity.

"Turner lad!" she exclaims. "How could I forget?"

Will smiles a little. "How´ve you all been?" he asks.

Anamaria smiles glumly and takes another swig of her drink. She closes her eyes for a while. "Fine, we´re all fine now."

"Why are you still here? I met Gibbs in Port Royal and I thought that he had left you ages ago…"

"Aye, two months ago." Her eyes darken.

"Then, what are you still doing here?" asks Will, and he sounds as though he hopes they weren´t.

Anamaria looks at him sharply, and considering her tipsy state, that´s quite an accomplishment. "Things´ve happened…"

"What things?"

Anamaria grins darkly. "You better ask Jack." Then, she smiles and chuckles a little. At some inside joke, Will thinks, and can´t help feeling left out.

"Where is he, then?" he asks.

"He should be at the shore. As far as I know." She grins again.

"Okay…" Will gets up. "Thanks, Anamaria. See you."

"Anytime, mate, anytime."

* * *

Will can´t restrain himself and heads straight to the shore. He feels weird now that he knows that he´ll see Jack again… He thinks about what it´ll be like and for some unexplainable reason he starts to feel giddy. An image of Jack fills his head and he has the irresistible urge to smile, and he does so.

So he walks across the town, in the night, grinning stupidly. He thinks about what he´ll say. He wonders if Jack´ll be happy to see him. Then, a horrible thought enters his head. What if Jack is angry with him? He didn´t show up in his and Elizabeth´s wedding, after all. Had Will done something to him? But then he decides that he is being silly and that there is no possible reason how that could be, and sweeps the doubts out of his head.

He thinks about Jack again. His tanned skin and rough hands, and tangled hair. His cheeky grin and his gold teeth. How he is always faithful to his hat. Will chuckles at the thought.

_"And Will – nice hat."_

The last words Jack has said to Will. Will wonders what has happened to Jack during the year and if he has changed. He grudgingly admits that he hopes not, and smiles yet again.

Finally, Will reaches the shore. The lights of the town are dim and the beach is shadowy in the night.

"Jack!" Will shouts. "Jack!"

No answer comes, only the soft sound of the waves and the wind in his ears.

"Jack?" Will shouts again, wondering where the pirate is, and wondering what he could be doing in the shore at that time of the night.

"Jack!" Will walks around the beach, calling out the man´s name repetitively. He hears no answer and is starting to get confused.

Then, suddenly, he hears a rustle of what he thinks is clothing from the shadows, right from him, further on the beach. He starts walking towards the sound and ends up running, but he really doesn´t care. He just runs, hoping to find Jack soon.

"Jack –" he starts, but suddenly runs into something and, caught off guard, falls onto the ground. "Jack?" he whispers, but he already knows that it _can´t_ be Jack, because that something he ran into is hanging from the air. He gets up, and realizes where he´s wandered. The place where the hanged pirates are put on display. He can see the sign _"Pirates ye be warned" _with his mind´s eye, and, disgusted, leaves. He decides to look for Jack in the morning when he´ll be able to see.

* * *

In the morning, he wakes up, determined to find Jack. He´s rather sure that he won´t see Anamaria anymore, and so he goes to the most natural place to find Jack. The docks, where the Black Pearl would probably be. Disguised, of course, but there. Again, the images of Jack race through his head, but he doesn´t really notice it anymore because he has got used to it by now.

He walks along the streets lazily and welcomes the salty wind on his face as he enters the harbour area. Seagulls screech above and fluffy white clouds drift across the sky slowly, like ships made of cotton wool. The sun shines warmly and Will feels sweat trickling down his neck. He trudges along the docks, carefully surveying every ship.

After two hours, he hasn´t spotted the Black Pearl. And he´s checked twice. He´s starting to get desperate.

He leaves the harbour area, and goes back to the shore. He wanders there, calling out for Jack. For twenty minutes he does that, but to him it feels like eternity.

Eventually Will is at the same place where he ran into the corpse the previous night. He glances around, hoping to see if Jack is somewhere around. After all, Will knows that Jack respects his colleagues, dead or not.

A whisper of the wind, the cheerful lapping of the waves, a soft rustle of clothes.

Will glances up.

Now that he thinks of it, he´s never seen Jack from this angle before.

He doesn´t look very different.

It takes a while before the situation sinks in. It hurts – it hurts more than a slap on the face, it hurts more than a kick in the crotch, and Will bets that it hurts more than a sword in the stomach. But that thought doesn´t come until much later.

A flow of nameless feelings floods Will, all at once, and he is scared. He feels like collapsing, and never getting up, but his feet are already moving. He runs away from the beach, but he doesn´t go to the inn. He goes to "The Happy Sailor" and orders a bottle of rum. It burns his throat and brings tears to his eyes, but he swallows it all. He likes it because it almost makes his head clear again. It is almost everything he needs right now.

He is able to think. He remembers Jack. His loud laugh, his odd way of walking, his excessive use of accessories. The way he waggled his fingers and the way he bit an apple.

Jack wasn´t exactly young anymore. Will has never really thought about it, but now that he does, he concludes that Jack was at least ten years older than he. Jack always seemed so ageless that Will wonders.

He remembers their adventure. He´d always, ever since he was a child, wanted to go adventuring. He´s had his adventure. He thinks that now it´s time to go back to reality.

He drinks more and tries to forget, but it isn´t so easy.

He shuffles to his room in the evening, completely drunk. He collapses to his bed and falls asleep immediately.

In the morning he doesn´t remember what sort of a dream he had, but he doesn´t even try to because his head hurts so much. He is sort of happy about that, because it keeps his mind in control and focused in the stabbing physical pain.

He falls asleep again. When he wakes up, it´s already evening, and he doesn´t remember any dreams he might have seen. But he knows what he has to do.

He goes back to the shore, and he barely can look Jack in the face again. But he does. He uses his sword to take Jack down, and then he lays the man down on the beach. Will kneels down beside him, and inspects his face. He looks oddly calm, and if Will squints and tilts his head a little he can almost see a half-smirk on Jack´s lips. He touches the man´s closed eyelids. The skin is cool, and the realisation makes Will jerk his hand back and decide not to touch his skin again.

Then he understands that he never can, now, and he places a hand on the man´s cheek. It´s strangely soft. Not exactly soft but definitely softer than what Will expected.

He sighs and whispers something, really low so he can´t even hear it himself, and he wonders what he said. But he decides that it doesn´t matter, and starts doing what must be done.

* * *

Will has built a raft. He doesn´t exactly know what he is doing, but he has a fairly good idea. In any case, he isn´t going to leave Jack there hanging for everyone to see. Even the mere thought disgusts him.

Will picks Jack up, and carries him to the raft, rocking slightly in the gentle waves. He places the body on it, and is vaguely satisfied because the raft is still well afloat. He looks at Jack´s face. Will realises that this is the last time he´ll ever see the other, and the thought makes him so sad that he wants to go with Jack, but he can´t because Elizabeth is waiting for him and he loves her.

Will traces Jack´s cheekbone with his index finger and is surprised because he can almost imagine the pirate stirring and asking what the hell Will is doing. He smiles.

"Goodbye, Jack," he whispers and he almost can´t let go of him but he does, and pushes the raft forward until he has to swim in order to get it any further.

Then, the currents grip the raft and it starts drifting away… Will returns to the beach and sits there, watching onto the horizon until sunrise. Then, he finally gets up and wipes his face with his sleeve, and starts walking back to town.

"Will! Will, I was so worried, I´m glad you´re here, what took you so long anyway? It´s been mad in here, I …" Will tunes Elizabeth´s voice out and hugs her tightly. But she feels somehow… too frail, and Will lets go, feeling very confused.

Elizabeth smiles at him gently. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Elizabeth, I am," he says and grins feebly at no one in particular.

"Maybe you should get some rest, you look a little tired," says Elizabeth, frowning.

"Okay," Will says blankly and ascends the stairs.

"But don´t forget to come to dinner, it´s at six o´clock, savvy?" Will can almost hear the grin in her voice.

But it´s different.

"Elizabeth…" Will starts.

"What is it?"

Will pauses and sighs. "Nothing, Liz, nothing." He walks up the rest of the stairs. Once he´s in the bedroom, he lays his bag on the bed and gazes out of the window, into the harbour. He knows that there won´t be any black sails, so he doesn´t even bother to check. And even if there were, what would it matter?

He turns his eyes into the horizon. He feels… cold.

* * *

And he´ll always have almost everything he needs.

* * *

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**_The End_**

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Now, would you please review? I´d be forever grateful if you did! Thanks in advance!


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